• 


DOCTOR 

MAN 


HELEN 
OODPUF 


MR.  DOCTOR-MAN 


HELEN  S.  WOODRUFF 


OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY.  LOS 


By  HELEN   S.  WOODRUFF 


THE  LITTLE  HOUSE 

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GEORGE   H.  DORAN    COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


MR.  DOCTOR-MAN 


BY 


HELEN  S.  WOODRUFF 

Author  of  "The  Lady  of  the  Lighthouse," 
"The  Little  House,"  etc.,  etc. 


NEW  YORK 
GEORGE  H.  DORAN  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1915, 
BY  GEORGE  H.  DOKAN  COMPANY 


To  the  Memory  of  My  Uncle 

HON.  WILLIAM  B.  HORNBLOWER 

Whose  Unfailing  Interest  in  My  Work 

Was  an  Inspiration 


AUTHOR'S    NOTE 

/N  the  heart  of  the  Sunny  South  there  is  a  beau- 
tiful "Magic  City"  but  the  fate  of  her  chil- 
dren will  not  be  that  of  the  children  in  this  story. 
The  untiring  efforts  of  the  wonderful  women  on  her 
Children's  Hospital  Board  have  saved  them  from 
that,  and  assured  her  future  citizens  the  oppor- 
tunity for  development  into  healthy  and  useful 
men  and  women. 

Long  live  the  new  hospital,  towards  the  building 
of  which  go  all  proceeds  from  this  book! 


CHAPTER    I 


MR.  DOCTOR-MAN 

CHAPTER    I 

-  DEAN  hung  up  the  telephone  re- 
ceiver  and  sighed.  Well,  that  mother 
was  comforted  anyway,  poor  little  fright- 
ened soul!  The  culture  was  all  right;  he 
had  been  able  to  tell  her  so  just  then;  and 
at  the  remembrance  of  her  happy  voice  over 
the  good  news  his  eyes  smiled — but  almost 
at  once  clouded  and  he  drew  his  brows  to- 
gether sharply.  How  much  longer  would 
the  little  thing,  her  daughter,  be  safe  ?  Three 
cases  of  diphtheria  in  one  district — and  one 
reported  from  his  own  neighborhood — and 
even  yet  the  great  city  which  he  could  plainly 

see   from   his   window   on   the   Highlands, 

11 


12       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

lapped  in  its  valley  bright  with  electric 
lights,  the  multiplicity  of  which  spelt  pros- 
perity, was  unconscious,  or  wilfully  careless, 
of  the  menace  within  her  very  gates! 

Was  his  the  only  heart  that  cared,  he  won- 
dered ?  Were  his  the  only  eyes  that  saw  the 
real  danger?  Surely  not;  and  yet  he  knew 
the  men  and  women  of  this  town  called  him 
"an  alarmist,"  a  man  who  was  only  "happy 
when  he  was  miserable  about  somebody  "- 
an  "old  croaker!" 

But  in  the  five  years  he  had  worked  among 
them  he  had  seen  three  epidemics  sweep  the 
poor  districts,  carrying  before  them  little 
lives  that  might  with  proper  civic  precaution 
have  been  spared.  And  so  little  had  the 
Highlands  really  cared — for  at  that  time 
they  had  escaped — that  very  few  of  the  fam- 
ilies had  realized  their  extent.  How  wicked, 
how  wasteful  it  all  seemed.  How  unfair  to 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAX        13 

Motherhood  and  the  little  souls  who  had 
so  recently  left  their  Maker,  wanting  and 
entitled  to  their  chance  in  the  world.  God, 
he  would  win!  He  would  keep  on  fighting! 
He  would  awaken  this  careless  city  of  luxury 
to  her  duty ;  and  with  this  idea  strengthened 
tenfold  by  his  recent  nights  of  sleeplessness 
and  the  resulting  fatigue,  he  began  writing 
furiously.  Perhaps  his  warnings  were  not 
read — perhaps  the  one  paper  which  had 
hitherto  helped  him  by  printing  them,  with 
his  heartfelt  appeals  that  they  be  heeded, 
would  refuse  this  time  to  give  the  matter  any 
space.  And  yet  he  must  try.  So  long  as 
the  wealthy  section  where  he  lived  cared 
no  more  than  it  did  for  the  poorer  sec- 
tion, menaces  would  remain,  coming  back 
each  year  to  claim  their  victims.  And  then 
a  bitter  thought,  half  desire,  shot  for  a  mo- 
ment through  his  mind.  If  those  fathers 


14       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

and  mothers  of  wealth  were  made  only  just 
once  to  thoroughly  appreciate  the  resulting 
suffering  of  an  epidemic,  as  the  poorer 
classes  had  been  made  to  appreciate  it  so 
many  times,  would  they  not  take  the  precau- 
tion he  was  daily  preaching  to  them  ?  Would 
they  not  band  themselves  together  and  build 
a  children's  hospital  with  a  contagious  ward 
—for  their  own  protection  if  not  for  hu- 
manity's sake?  A  city  of  over  one  hundred 
thousand  people,  and  no  such  institution! 
Then  his  pencil  flew  faster  than  ever.  He 
would  tell  them  once  more,  in  stronger  lan- 
guage if  possible,  in  which  direction  their 
duty  lay! 

Sitting  thus  at  his  desk  beneath  the  cold 
light  of  a  green  reading  lamp,  his  features 
drawn  and  tense,  he  wrote  on  and  on  as  the 
dusk  deepened  into  twilight  and  the  twi- 
light into  night,  and  the  jeweled  crown  of 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        15 

the  city  grew  brighter  and  more  gay  each 
moment.  It  seemed  to  him  as  his  pen  flew 
rapidty  over  the  paper  that  it  must  be  dipped 
in  his  very  heart's  blood,  so  keenly  and 
vividly  did  the  writing  bring  into  being  the 
past  which  rose  up  and  passed  before  him 
in  kaleidoscopic  scenes,  changing,  ever 
changing,  as  if  in  a  dream,  each  scene  more 
terrible  than  the  last.  Ah,  no  wonder  he 
was  a  "croaker,"  a  crank,  eternally  preach- 
ing Prevention  with  a  large  P!  Almost 
ever  since  he  could  remember  all  the  sorrow 
in  his  life  had  been  caused  by  onsets  of 
Disease  that  could  have  been  kept  out  by 
the  wall  of  Prevention!  And  dropping  his 
pencil  he  deliberately  dwelt  on  those  scenes 
of  sadness  that  had  done  so  much  towards 
molding  him  into  the  man  he  now  was — a 
man  giving  the  best  years  of  his  life  not  only 
to  the  crying  of  "wolf,"  but  to  the  actual 


16       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

fighting  of  that  enemy  when  it  came  to  his 
neighbor's  door. 

In  his  early  youth  scarlet  fever  had  shut 
him  in  darkness  for  many  months — a  dark- 
ness so  terrifying  and  seemingly  endless  that 
he  had  never  forgotten.  And  later,  it  had 
been  the  same  dread  spectre  that  had  taken 
his  two  little  brothers,  and  left  his  mother, 
then  so  young  and  gay,  a  bowed  sorrowful 
woman,  old  before  her  time. 

Then  the  other — after  he  had  finished  his 
medical  course  and  begun  his  practice  in  a 
small  town  in  the  Middle  West.  It  had  come 
like  a  nightmare  at  first,  and  later  he  had 
awakened  to  find  it  a  reality.  What  a  fool 
he  had  been,  and  yet — yet  he  knew  in  his 
heart  that  he  would  doubtless  do  over  again 
the  same  thing  he  had  done  then  if  the  pos- 
sibility or  need  arose.  Yet  it  had  almost 
spoiled  his  life.  It  could  have  been  done 


MR.   DOCTOR- MAN        17 

another  way.  Yes,  there  was  no  necessity 
of  such  headlong  self-sacrifice.  But  when 
he  had  done  it  there  seemed  no  other  way. 
If  it  had  happened  to  him  now  of  course,  in 
his  maturer  years,  he  would  not  have— 

"Ting-a-ling-a-ling,"  the  telephone  bell  in- 
terrupted; and  whirling  around  in  his  chair 
he  picked  up  the  instrument,  forgetting  his 
own  sorrows  completely  in  his  anxiety  at 
this  call.  He  was  not  a  fashionable  doctor, 
nor  one  to  gain  in  worldly  goods,  and  young 
mothers  never  roused  him  out  of  a  warm 
bed  to  tell  him  their  babies'  feet  were  cold, 
or  that  they  had  swallowed  a  bite  of  some- 
thing they  hadn't  chewed!  So  when  the  bell 
rang  now  he  knew  that  it  was  probably  an 
S.  O.  S.  from  some  poor  soul  adrift  on  the 
sea  of  trouble  somewhere  on  the  fiery  out- 
skirts of  the  smoky  iron  ,and  coal  manufac- 
turing city,  '  --.  •  „  • 


18       MR.   DOCTOR-MAN 

"Hello.    Yes?    My  district  nurse? " 

" — Oh,  yes!  Yes,  Miss  Comfort,"  he  an- 
swered the  voice  of  a  sweet-faced  elderly 
woman  he  paid  personally  to  do  work  for 
him  in  the  poor  districts. 

"What?  What's  that?— Oh,  dreadful !- 
Why  the  poor  little  child,  I'll  be  right  out — 
Of  course !  What  ?— What's  that  ?— Got  no 
home?  Deserted,  you  think?  Found  him  in 
a  vacant  shack?  My  God !" — and  he  groaned 
aloud  as  the  voice  at  the  other  end  of  the 
wire  kept  on  with  its  story. 

"Well — let's  see,"  he  finally  said  as  the 
other  ceased  speaking;  "you  say  you  think 
his  family  have  moved  and  left  him?  Must 
be  child  of  drunken  parents  that  have  been 
working  around  the  foundry?  And  they  left 
yesterday — limp-hump — WelL — eh — Miss 
Comfort,  couldn't  you — I  hate  like  the  dick- 
ens to  ask  you,  but  you  know  the  neighbor- 


MR.    DOCTOR- MAN        19 

hood  I  am  in — besides  the  lady  I'm  boarding 
with  has  a  child  of  her  own  so  I  couldn't 
bring  him  here — couldn't  you  take  him  to 
your  rooms? — Well  of  course  if  that's  the 
case,  you  can't."  Then  his  indignation  get- 
ting the  better  of  him  he  exclaimed  hotly : 

"It's  the  devil  to  pay  anyhow!  Out- 
rageous! Simply  assinine!  A  city  of  this 
size  and  no  children's  hospital  or  contagious 
Avard!  Nowhere  to  take  a  sick  child  like 
that!  Well,  I'll  be  right  out  as  quick  as  I 
can  get  there !  In  the  meantime  keep  him  in 
the  shack,"  and  hanging  up  the  receiver  he 
grabbed  his  hat  and  heavy  overcoat  and 
rushed  out  of  the  door  to  the  curb  where  his 
motor  waited,  thinking  aloud  angrily: 

"And  the  trouble  spreading,  spreading,  as 
it  was  bound  to  do! — Why  people  can't  real- 
ize that  to  really  protect  their  own  children 
they  must  protect  all  children— why  they 


20       MR.    DOCTOR-MAX 

can't  realize  that  to  make  the  Highlands 
safe  they  must  make  the  poor  districts  safe, 
I  simply  cannot  understand!  There  is  cer- 
tainly no  such  thing  as  prevention  so  long 
as  selfishness  and  lack  of  helpfulness  to 
others  prevails!"  And  entering  the  car  he 
said  to  the  negro  at  the  wheel: 

"Bud,  drive  like  the  devil!  South  Street. 
Don't  mind  the  speed  limits! — A  city  like 
this  oughtn't  to  be  allowed  limits,  or  any- 
thing else!  Lord,  the  foolhardiness  of  such 
people!"  and  he  settled  himself  back  and 
gazed  out  towards  the  twinkling  city  below 
him  that  lay,  flame-encircled,  like  a  beauti- 
ful Brunhilda  fast  asleep. 

Down  South  Street,  around  the  winding 
curves  of  Overland  Avenue  and  on  past 
the  Country  Club,  gay  with  music  and  laugh- 
ter, past  rows  of  beautiful  homes  surrounded 
by  green  lawns  arid  trees  that  were  seem- 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAX        21 

ingly  an  unbroken  line  of  sentinels  in  their 
winter  dress,  the  motor  sped. 

As  they  neared  the  heart  of  the  city,  busy 
now  with  hordes  of  Christmas  shoppers,  Dr. 
Dean  could  not  but  marvel  inwardly  at  the 
wonder  and  beauty  of  it  all.  Only  a  very 
few  years  before,  when  he  was  a  boy,  he 
remembered  having  been  here  in  Hamburg, 
but  then  he  had  seen  only  a  small  town,  ap- 
parently like  any  other  small  town  in  the 
sunny  South.  And  now— 

He  looked  up  at  the  brooding,  furnace 
lighted  smoke  cloud  hovering  above  moun- 
tains, hills,  valleys  and  dales,  all  a  part  of 
her,  and  imagined  he  saw  the  giant  Genii 
that  had  called  her  from  the  smoke  and 
flame  that  marked  her  borders  into  her 
present  beautiful  being.  Surely  she  was 
a  magic  city — a  wonderful  admixture  of 
terrible  flames  and  cooling  vistas,  of  sun- 


22       MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

kissed  suburban  homes  and  city-thronged 
streets.  No  wonder  her  inhabitants  spoke 
of  her  with  pride  in  their  hearts,  and  yet — 
yet  on  her  fiery  outskirts,  whither  he  was 
even  now  speeding  at  this  "Time  of  Love" 
—just  before  the  Christ-child's  birthday, 
there  was  a  little  sick  child,  homeless,  a  men- 
ace to  other  children;  and  in  the  whole  of 
that  great  city  full  of  wealth  and  approach- 
ing Christmas  joy  there  was  not  one  single 
place  to  which  it  could  be  taken  where  proper 
care  could  be  given  it!  With  this  the  trend 
of  his  former  thoughts  returned,  and  he  did 
not  look  out,  but  sat,  head  bowed,  going  over 
again  every  detail  of  his  past  life  and  the 
part  that  physical  suffering  and  sorrow  had 
played  in  it. 

Once  more  he  saw  himself  as  a  young 
medical  student  in  New  York  City,  and  saw 
her,  a  young  nurse,  white  clad,  by  his  side. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        23 

Golden  haired,  with  blue  eyes  like  a  child's, 
she  stood  beside  him,  always  ready,  always 
helping,  seeming  to  know  intuitively  his 
every  wish  and  supplying  it  almost  before 
he  himself  realized  what  it  was,  her  hands 
ever  responding  to  his  every  need  as  readily 
as  did  his  own. 

Thus  for  two  years  they  had  worked  side 
by  side  in  that  place  of  suffering,  each  read- 
ing in  the  other's  looks  and  gestures  that 
which  he  felt  he  could  not  express  in  words 
until  after  he  knew  his  future  to  be  assured. 
But  oh!  the  foolish,  false  pride  of  that 
silence!  For  had  he  spoken  then,  had  he 
been  bound  to  her,  the  other  calamity  would 
never  have  happened.  Ah!  he  knew  that 
now!  Only  too  well  he  realized,  too  late, 
that  she  would  without  doubt  have  waited 
for  him,  waited  lovingly  and  with  encourag- 
ing faith  for  the  time  when  they  could  ha-e 


24       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

married.  Had  not  her  eyes  said  as  much 
to  him  over  and  over  again!  And,  after 
all,  was  what  he  chose  then  to  call  "honor- 
able silence"  really  honorable  or  fair  to  her? 
Is  it  not  always  in  very  great  part  just  sel- 
fish pride  that  every  man's  ego  cloaks  under 
the  guise  of  honor?  How  miserable  and 
lonely  the  empty  years  had  been  in  spite  of 
all  he  had  accomplished. 

And  now  the  scene  shifted  and  he  saw 
himself  alone,  working  hard  at  his  profes- 
sion in  the  small  Western  city  where  he  had 
gone  just  after  his  graduation.  No  word 
had  passed  between  them  at  parting,  but  he 
had  felt  sure  then  that  in  another  year  he 
could  return  and  speak  it,  speak  it  so  she 
would  know  and  understand  how  hard  a 
struggle  the  silence  had  been  for  him ! 

Then  like  a  slowly  approaching  storm  the 
rumor  reached  him,  distant  and  uncertain 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAX        25 

at  first,  but  growing  more  distinct  as  it  came, 
of  her  supposed  engagement  to  the  head 
surgeon  under  whom  they  had  both  worked. 
An  angry,  accusing  letter, — a  proud,  hurt 
response  flew  across  the  country,  and 
then- 
It  was  night.  The  winter  wind  howled 
and  roared  through  the  deserted  streets  of 
his  Western  home,  the  house  shook;  but  all 
unheeding  he  answered  a  call  to  the  poorer 
part  of  the  town,  glad  to  forget  his  own  suf- 
fering in  the  possibility  of  helping  some- 
one else. 

Alone  in  a  small  bedroom  high  above  the 
parlor-boarders  he  found  her,  a  poor  little 
crumpled  wreck,  her  dark  curls  streaming 
across  the  pillow,  her  small  face  drawn  and 
white  with  suffering! 

The  hard  featured  "lady  of  the  house" 
had  sent  for  him,  and  on  learning  that  the 


26       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

seamstress-boarder  had  spinal  meningitis  a 
terrible  hour  had  ensued ! 

There  was  no  hospital  in  the  town  .  .  . 
She  had  no  relatives  or  friends.  She  could 
not  remain  in  the  boarding  house,  or  so 
the  lady  of  the  house  angrily  informed  him. 
...  So  himself  angry,  and  having  been  so 
recently  hurt,  with  his  usual  impulsiveness 
and  a  desperateness  half  vindictive  towards 
the  golden  haired  girl,  he  had  married  his 
little  patient  and  taken  her  to  his  home. 

Days  of  patient  nursing,  ministrations  as 
gentle  as  though  she  had  been  that  other 
one,  ensued;  while  rumors  of  his  mental  ir- 
responsibility, occasioned  by  his  quixotic 
conduct,  as  judged  by  the  town,  reached  the 
young  doctor.  But  he  was  too  busy,  and  too 
miserable,  to  care! 

In  bravado  he  had  sent  a  heavily  marked 
copy  of  his  marriage  announcement  to  New 


MR.    DOCTOR- MAN       27 

York,  and  in  return  had  read  of  the  well- 
known  surgeon's  sudden  marriage  to  his 
pretty  nurse. 

Days  grew  into  weeks,  and  weeks  into 
months,  and  though  the  doctor's  little  patient 
bearing  his  name  was  no  longer  a  placarded 
danger  to  the  town,  and  he  could  come  and 
go  freely  to  his  home,  her  face  showed  no 
responsive  gleam  at  his  comings  or  goings; 
for  the  pain  had  left  her  bereft  of  all  per- 
sonality— a  gentle  dark-eyed  little  spirit  un- 
aware of  her  own  existence,  adrift,  with  no 
rudder  to  guide  her. 

Of  course  the  doctor's  rising  practice  rap- 
idly dwindled  after  that,  until  within  a  very 
short  time  he  put  the  poor  little  thing,  his 
wife  in  name  only,  into  a  comfortable  Home 
maintained  for  such  as  she  and,  packing  his 
things,  had  gone  south  to  his  native  state, 
settling  in  the  manufacturing  city  fast  grow- 


28       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

ing  famous  throughout  the  world,  hoping 
here  to  make  his  life  really  count  for  some- 
thing after  all. 

"Gawd,  Boss,  did  you  see  dat !"  the  chauf- 
feur rudely  broke  in  upon  his  thoughts.  "We 
almost  got  pulled  dat  time,  fer  sho!  Good- 
bye, Mr.  Cop!"  and  he  raced  on,  leaving  the 
angry  policeman  far  behind  them.  "We'se 
hittin'  it  up  like  de  heavenly  chariot !"  And 
chuckling,  he  turned  a  sharp  curve  and  slow- 
ing down,  looked  towards  the  doctor: 

"All  right,  sir,  here  we  is.  What  shack 
does  you  desire?"  And  he  went  very  slowly 
over  the  black  dirt  road,  on  each  side  of  which 
were  closely  clustered  shanties,  outlined 
darkly  against  the  glare  of  the  coke  ovens 
and  flaming  furnaces  beyond. 

Peering  anxiously  out  at  the  weird  scene, 
seeking  for  some  sign  as  to  where  the  dis- 
trict nurse  was  waiting  with  her  charge,  Dr. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        29 

Dean  did  not  answer,  and  so  the  chauffeur 
drove  on. 

Every  now  and  then  they  passed  small 
knots  of  workmen,  the  flare  of  the  furnaces 
lighting  up  their  smeared  faces,  and  each 
of  these  groups  seemed  to  be  talking  earn- 
estly together.  Occasionally  one  or  more 
of  them  would  recognize  the  doctor's  car, 
standing  out  as  it  did  against  the  fiery  back- 
ground ;  and  touching  their  slouch  hats  would 
salute  him  as  he  passed.  In  the  crisp  winter 
air  the  blast  of  the  furnaces  several  blocks 
away  could  be  felt,  and  the  soft  coal  smoke 
settled  down  over  the  whole  scene  in  a  softly 
falling  shower  of  soot. 

Finally,  after  having  gone  some  distance 
through  this  settlement,  the  anxious  doctor 
espied  a  woman's  figure  far  down  the  black 
dirt  road  standing  under  an  arc-light,  a  child 
held  tightly  in  her  arms,  and  another  woman 


30       MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

bending  above  them  both.  Quickly  giving 
his  chauffeur  a  command  to  stay  exactly 
where  he  was,  Dr.  Dean  jumped  out  and 
strode  rapidly  up  to  them. 

At  the  sound  of  his  approaching  footsteps 
the  one  in  white,  a  dark  cape  thrown  around 
her,  turned,  and  her  face  lighted  with  wel- 
come and  relief. 

"He's  pretty  sick,"  she  said  to  him  gently. 
"But  I  had  to  bring  him  out  here,  for  the 
couple  in  the  adjoining  cabin  have  children 
— and  besides  I  had  no  proper  light— and 
he  was  choking  so  frightfully!"  Then  turn- 
ing to  the  negro  woman  who  held  the  child 
she  said: 

"Thank  you  very  much,  Auntie.  Now 
I'll  take  him.  It  was  awfully  good  and 
brave  of  you  to  help  me."  Then  speaking 
again  to  the  doctor  she  continued:  "Every- 
one was  so  frightened  I  could  not  get  any 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        31 

help — only  excited  demands  that  I  get  him 
out  of  the  house — until  Auntie  here  hap- 
pened along And  the  poor  little  thing 

is  choking  to  death,  I  fear !  But  she  has  held 
him  while  I  removed  some  of  the  mucus 
from  his  throat,  and  now — there,  I'll  take 
him,  Auntie— 

But  before  she  could  take  him  from  the 
negro's  arms  a  terrible  paroxysm  of  cough- 
ing and  gasping  again  caught  the  poor  little 
sufferer.  His  body  grew  cold  and  rigid, 
then  curling  itself  backwards  over  her  arm 
he  made  a  frantic  effort  to  fill  his  stifling 
lungs.  His  eyes,  wide  open  and  horribly 
staring,  protruded;  and  then  finding  the 
struggle  too  great,  the  limbs  relaxed,  and 
he  lay  an  unconscious,  pathetic  heap  against 
the  woman's  breast! 

With  lightning  fingers  then — for  there 
was  not  a  moment  to  lose — the  doctor  tore 


32       MR.   DOCTOR-MAN 

open  the  satchel  he  carried  and  in  quick,  but 
firm,  tones  of  command  gave  directions  to 
the  nurse. 

Obeying  him  she  soon  held  an  ether  cone 
to  the  queerly  working  little  face,  which  al- 
most immediately  grew  calmer  and  more 
deadly  white;  and  with  long  deft  fingers 
the  doctor  plied  his  surgeon's  knife  right 
then  and  there  in  the  light  of  that  street 
lamp,  and  opening  the  soft  white  throat 
just  below  the  dimpled  chin  inserted  a  tube. 

The  blue  of  the  child's  face  faded  as  with 
a  long  convulsive  whistle  the  air  passed 
through  the  tube  and  entered  his  tortured 
lungs.  The  doctor  and  nurse,  white  and 
shaking  now,  stood  watching,  for  this  was 
a  thing  done  only  as  the  last  resort,  and  even 
yet  they  almost  dared  not  hope  for  its  suc- 
eess. 
.•  Slowly;  slowly  the  refreshing  air  did  its 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN       33 

work.  The  little  fellow  regained  conscious- 
ness and  opening  his  eyes  tried  to  smile  into 
those  of  the  old  negro  woman  who  still  held 
him,  while  the  tears  streamed  unheeded  down 
her  cheeks. 

"Marse,"  she  said  brokenly  to  the  doctor, 
"dis  cole  night  air  is  bad  fer  him — ain't  it?" 

The  doctor  bowed  his  head  in  assent  and 
was  about  to  answer  when  she  continued  in 
a  glad  voice: 

"Den  come  on!  Jes  follow  me!  We-all 
will  take  him  to  my  house,"  pointing  to  a 
dilapidated  negro  cabin  further  down  the 
road,  away  from  the  settlement  of  laborers. 
"Dar  ain't  nobody  dar  but  me,  and  I  doan 
keer  ef  he  is  got  ketchin  dippentheria,  I 
don't !  Bless  his  little  soul,  it's  worth  ketchin 
somethin'  to  he'p  sech  an  angel  chile!"  And 
leading  the  way,  she  soon  had  the  little  fel- 
low safe  between  the  snowy  sheets  of  her 


34       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

tumbled  down  "bes'  bed,"  and  the  doctor  and 
nurse  were  keeping  watch  over  him. 

All  through  the  night  the  Angel  of  Death 
seemed  hovering  very  near,  but  as  the  sun 
rose  up  over  the  eastern  hills  to  smile  the 
shadows  away  the  little  boy  slept,  and  Dr. 
Dean  knew  the  worst  was  past. 

"Miss  Comfort,"  he  said  to  his  nurse,  "are 
you  sure  this  child  was  deserted  by  drunken 
parents  working  in  the  foundries?" 

Miss  Comfort  looked  at  the  tousled  yellow 
curls,  the  small  delicate  features,  and  the 
exquisitely  aristocratic  little  hands  as  they 
lay  outstretched  upon  the  bed,  and  shook  her 
head. 

"Oh,  I'm  not  at  all  sure,"  she  said.  "I 
simply  guessed  it.  That  was  the  only  way 
Auntie  and  I  could  account  for  him  being 
here,  that's  all.  I  heard  him  crying  as  I 
passed  last  night,  just  before  telephoning 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        35 

you — and  finally  located  him,  frightened  and 
ill  almost  beyond  consciousness  in  the  empty 
shack  just  vacated  by  a  no-count  couple  I 
knew  had  a  son  about  his  age.  But  of  course 
he  may  be 

"Miss  Comfort,"  he  said  almost  brusquely, 
whirling  around  and  striding  back  to  the  bed- 
side, "I  think  he  will  live.  But  he  is  too  ill 
even  yet  for  you  to  have  the  entire  charge  of 
him.  I'll  send  someone  to  relieve  you.  And 
in  the  meantime,  I  must  start  a  search  for 
his  parents.  I'll  also  send  down  at  once  dis- 
infectants from  the  drug  store,  so  don't 
worry.  After  'scrubbing  up'  you  need  not 
be  quarantined,  but  can  turn  the  case  over 
to  the  other  nurse  and  go  to  those  cases  who 
need  you.  I'll  also  attend  to  fumigating  the 
cabin  where  you  found  him. 

"And  you,  Auntie,"  stepping  from  the 
sick  room  into  the  lean-to  that  formed  the 


36       MR.   DOCTOR-MAN 

kitchen  of  the  cabin  and  speaking  to  the 
negro  woman  there,  "you've  been  a  trump!" 
and  he  put  his  hand  on  her  old  bent  shoulder. 
"But  you  understand  now  that  you  are  quar- 
antined and  must  not  go  out,  or  let  anyone 
come  in  here,  until  I  tell  you  you  may.  Un- 
derstand? I've  got  to  go  away  for  an  hour 
or  so,  but  Miss  Comfort '11  be  here— 

"Yes,  sah;  yes,  sah,"  the  old  woman  curt- 
sied. "Yes,  sah,  Doctor,  I  puffectly  under- 
stands," and  with  a  last  lingering  look  at  the 
beautiful  boy  on  the  bed  the  doctor  went 
away. 

But  the  good-hearted  old  negress,  though 
she  did  realize  perfectly,  as  she  had  said, 
that  she  could  not  go  out,  did  not  realize  any 
more  than  did  others  like  her  who  were 
spreading  the  dread  trouble,  that  laundry 
for  "de  Quality"  should  be  quarantined 
also.  So  summoning  the  drayman  who  al- 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        37 

ways  did  such  delivering  she  soon  had  the 
various  bundles  of  beautifully  fluted  and 
starched  clothes  speeding  on  their  way  to 
the  homes  on  the  Highlands  where  the  little 
darlings  of  wealth  lived  out  their  sheltered 
existence,  their  mothers  for  the  most  part 
unmindful,  or  heedless,  of  that  other  part 
of  the  city  now  suffering,  because  they  felt 
secure  in  the  knowledge  that  they  were  too 
far  removed  for  danger. 


CHAPTER   II 

morning  of  the  day  on  which  the 
-*•  district  nurse  had  found  Christopher 
ill  and  forlorn  in  the  deserted  shack  his 
pretty  young  mother,  Gladys  Clark,  was  sit- 
ting at  her  brother's  breakfast  table  in  a 
cheery  house  high  up  on  the  wooded  slopes 
of  Gray  Mountain,  far  above  the  roar  and 
soot  of  the  busy  city. 

Occasionally  she  would  raise  her  big  blue 
eyes  from  the  paper  she  held,  and  dreamily 
looking  from  the  windows,  flooded  with  the 
warm  winter  sunshine,  she  would  gaze  away, 
over  beyond  the  topographical-like  scene  of 
winding  home-lined  streets  to  that  very  sec- 
tion of  grinding  labor  and  biting  poverty. 
Sitting  thus  she  could  not  help  but  com- 

41 


42       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

pare  her  own  lot  with  that  of  those  other 
mothers  less  fortunate  than  herself ;  and  with 
this  thought  her  eyes  involuntarily  sought 
the  boy's  curly  head  bent  busily  over  his 
cereal  bowl  as  he  sat  by  her  side. 

A  bright  fire  crackled  and  snapped  upon 
the  hearth  just  back  of  the  rich-toned  ma- 
hogany table  around  which  they  sat,  and 
with  a  sigh,  half  of  sympathy  for  those  oth- 
ers and  full  of  thankfulness  for  herself,  she 
let  her  eyes  wander  back  from  the  out-door 
scene,  and  picking  up  the  paper  from  her 
lap  went  on  reading  the  article  that  had 
caused  her  her  present  mood  of  introspec- 
tion. 

How  little  she  knew  the  thoughts  that 
her  own  interest  and  words  on  the  subject 
had  set  to  work  in  the  baby  head  she  imag- 
ined to  be  so  idly  innocent;  thoughts  that 
had  her  mother-eyes  been  able  to  read  would 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        43 

have  turned  her  feeling  of  happy  security 
into  a  frantic  fear.  For  listening  every 
morning,  as  he  had,  to  hers  and  her  broth- 
er's conversation  her  little  son  had  deter- 
mined to  explore  the  city's  smoky  borders 
at  his  very  first  opportunity. 

It  must  be  a  gloriously  dangerous  sort  of 
place,  way  out  there,  he  was  thinking  to  him- 
self, as  in  true  boy  fashion  he  scraped  the 
last  bit  from  his  bowl.  It  must  be  full  of 
fiery  furnaces,  and  interesting  sick  children, 
and  black  smoke  curling  up  and  up  and 
up, — so  high  he  could  see  it  from  almost 
every  window  of  his  new  home !  Yes,  he  was 
sure  he  would  love  it  there !  He  had  said  as 
much  to  his  mother  that  very  morning  be- 
fore breakfast ;  but  she  had  met  the  sugges- 
tion of  their  going  with  a  horrified  "no" ! 

But  he  was  five  years  old  now! — and  a 
great  big  boy!  And  with  this  newly  ac- 


44        MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

quired  age,  proclaimed  only  a  few  days  be- 
fore by  a  huge  cake  with  five  bright  candles 
burning  upon  it,  he  decided  he  would  go  any- 
how. Yes,  the  very  first  chance  he  got  he 
would  go! — and  his  eyes  looked  off  to  that 
alluring  spot  just  as  his  mother's  eyes  were 
doing.  All  one  had  to  do,  he  argued  men- 
tally, was  to  go  down  the  winding  white 
streets  the  same  way  his  uncle  did  every 
morning.  Then  after  he  had  done  that  he 
would  go  on  past  the  tall  buildings  in  the 
valley,  so  plainly  seen  from  the  window, 
where  he  knew  his  uncle  was  making  bread 
and  butter!  .  .  .  And  then  he  would  go  on 
and  on,  out  to  those  tall,  tall  chimneys  that 
looked  like  Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum's  giant  pipes! 
That  was  the  way  to  get  there  he  was  sure ! ! 
Yes,  he  was  quite  big  enough  to  go  alone. 

And  all  unconscious  of  these  thoughts  back 
of  her  son's  cherub-like  expression  his  mother 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        45 

again  commenced  talking  freely  to  her  broth- 
er, paper-engrossed,  at  the  other  end  of  the 
table,  both  of  them  entirely  unsuspicious  of 
the  not  too  innocent  ears  so  keenly  pricked 
for  their  every  word. 

"Jack,"  Mrs.  Clark  said  wistfully,  looking 
up  from  her  paper,  "I  wish  I  could  help 
those  poor  things  living  near  the  foundries. 
As  I  have  often  said,  the  children's  lives 
can't  be  very  joyous  at  best  in  that  soot-laden 
air  and  unnatural  surroundings.  But  I  don't 
dare  go  out  there!  In  fact  these  articles  in 
the  Ledger  Age  News  have  gotten  on  my 
nerves  terribly.  Yet  I  can't  seem  to  help 
reading  them  every  morning,  for  I  realize 
they  must  be  true,  and  that  something  ought 
to  be  done  about  it  all.  The  writer  says, 
'Safety  and  Selfishness  do  not  make  good 
bedfellows.  ...  To  safeguard  one's  own 
child  one  must  safeguard  all  children.  .  .  . 


46        MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

Every  sick  child  is  every  well  child's  neigh- 
bor, for  Diphtheria  eliminates  distance,  as 
do  all  contagious  diseases' — and  he  says  fur- 
ther that  there  is  another  case  out  there — 
and — Oh,  My  Goodness! — one  case  here 
...  on  the  Highlands!"  as  her  eyes  caught 
the  alarming  words. 

"Now,  Gladys,"  her  brother  interrupted, 
looking  over  his  paper  at  her  terror-bleached 
face,  "don't  you  begin  worrying  about  that 
again!  There's  a  crank  doctor  in  this  town 
named  Dean  that's  always  writing  that  stuff 
and  alarming  everybody,  but  we've  been 
without  a  contagious  ward  or  a  children's 
hospital  either  for  a  good  many  years,  and  I 
guess  we  can  go  on  a  little  longer— 

"But  every  town  does  need  them  both," 
Mrs.  Clark  broke  in,  swallowing  hard  to  re- 
gain her  self-control.  "And  when  I  wrote 
asking  you  about  everything  in  connection 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        47 

with  Christopher's  and  my  coming  here  to 
live  with  you  I  forgot 

"Yes,  thank  the  Lord,  you  forgot  to  ask 
about  that !"  he  exclaimed,  his  eyes  twinkling. 
"Why,  Sis,  if  you  had  asked  me  any  more 
questions  as  to  the  safety  of  the  Heir- 
Apparent's  health  in  this  burg  I  think  I 
would  have  had  to  send  the  whole  town  up 
to  New  York  'on  approval'  before  you'd 
have  consented  to  come !"  and  he  grinned  his 
broad  good-natured  grin  at  her. 

But  Mrs.  Clark,  again  entirely  engrossed 
in  her  paper,  seemed  not  to  have  heard  him, 
and  in  a  moment  more  she  went  on: 

"Well,  dear,  of  course  if  you're  really  ab- 
solutely sure  there  is  no  danger  of  those 
foundry  children  coming  over  here,  or  Chris- 
topher's coming  in  contact  with  the 
germs— 


48       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

was  holding  up  both  hands  at  her  in  mock 
pleading — she  had  been  over  this  very  same 
ground  so  often  of  late — and  his  eyes  were 
brimming  with  merriment. 

"  'How  doth   the  busy  little  germ 
Improve  each  shining  hour,'  r 

he  quoted.  Then  seeing  her  real  distress  his 
face  sobered  and  he  reassured  her  seriously 
as  usual. 

"Of  course  there's  no  danger,  Gladys.  I 
would  not  have  let  you  come  here  if  there  had 
been.  As  I've  told  you  before  that  part  of 
the  town  is  miles  away— 

"Yes,  but  that  isn't  the  only  part  of  Ham- 
burg where  you've  had  and  are  having  con- 
tagious diseases — judging  from  these  ar- 
ticles" .  .  . 

"Those  articles  be  hanged,"  her  brother 
broke  in  impatiently.  "Even  the  reported 


MR.   DOCTOR-MAN       49 

Highlands  case  is  blocks  away  from  us!  I 
tell  you  the  man's  a  crank.  Don't  worry  so 
much 

"I  don't  worry  much,"  his  sister  defended 
herself  quickly.  "But — but  Jack,  you  must 
remember  that  he's  all  I've  got  now,"  look- 
ing at  the  busy  curly  head,  "and — and  my 
hospital  training  .  .  .  Well,  dear,  I  just 
can't  help  feeling  a  little  bit  like  this  writer 
does !  He  says :  'We  are  all  neighbors.  To 
protect  oneself  others  have  to  be  protected !' 
Of  course  I  want  to  stay  here  with  you,"  and 
getting  up  she  went  around  and  perched  her- 
self upon  his  chair-arm  affectionately.  "You 
know  I  do.  I  love  living  here  in  your  house, 
but  I  do  want  Christopher  to  be  safe!" 

"Safe!"  her  brother  again  grinned  good- 
naturedly;  "I  never  saw  a  safer  looking 
specimen — did  you?"  and  the  boy,  having  at 
last  succeeded  in  thoroughly  polishing  his 


50       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

oat  meal  bowl,  jumped  up  and  in  imitation 
of  his  mother  solemnly  clambered  on  the 
other  arm  of  his  uncle's  chair,  his  mind  still 
busy  with  that  forbidden  journey,  though 
his  face  showed  nothing  save  baby  innocence 
and  charming  vacancy  of  thought.  Thus  the 
three  of  them  sat  for  several  moments,  until 
finally  the  man  shifted  his  position,  and  look- 
ing at  his  watch,  took  his  sister's  small, 
piquant  face  in  his  hands  and  kissed  her. 

"I  must  go  now,  Gladys.  And  don't  you 
worry!  It's  bully  having  you  here — simply 
bully !"  Then  to  the  child : 

"Good-bye,  old  man.  Don't  get  into  any 
more  mischief  than  you  can  help.  So  long!" 
And  getting  up  he  swung  out  of  the  room, 
down  the  front  steps,  and  jumped  into  his 
runabout,  while  Mrs.  Clark  hurried  to  the 
back  of  the  house  to  attend  to  the  housekeep- 
ing duties  of  her  brother's  establishment. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN       51 

Down  the  drive  the  little  fellow  trotted, 
as  was  his  daily  habit,  and  standing  at  the 
entrance  of  the  driveway  watched  his  uncle's 
car  go  speeding  down  the  steep,  winding 
street  towards  that  Smoke  Region  that  had 
taken  such  a  strong  hold  upon  his  childish 
imagination. 

"I  dess  dess  I'll  go  now!"  he  said  to  him- 
self with  only  a  fleeting  glance  of  uneasiness 
towards  the  house.  And  suiting  the  action 
to  the  words  he  was  soon  trotting  on  out 
through  the  stone  gateway  and  briskly  down 
the  hill  as  fast  as  his  fat  little  legs  could 
carry  him.  Very  quickly  he  found  with  a 
feeling  of  relief  that  he  was  out  of  calling 
distance,  and  thus  reassured  and  feeling  par- 
ticularly independent,  he  slackened  his  pace 
and  looked  about  him  with  eager  interest. 

"I  likes  'sploring,"  he  said  briefly  to  him- 
self. Then  in  self-explanation  of  the  wan- 


52       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

der-lust  that  was  bubbling  up  in  him  for  the 
first  time,  he  remarked  further:  "I'm  five 
years  old,  so  course  I  do!"  And  crossing 
the  street  he  went  on,  his  eyes  fastened  joy- 
fully upon  the  distant  view  of  the  smoke- 
wreathed,  flame-encircled  Mecca  of  his 
dreams,  until  getting  further  down  the  steep 
street  this  alluring  view  was  lost  to  him  be- 
hind the  houses,  and  suddenly  bereft  of  the 
ambition  that  it  had  always  inspired  in  him, 
he  began  to  realize  that  he  was  tired  and  that 
his  shoes  were  really  very  heavy!  The  crisp 
winter  air  bit  at  his  bare  hands  and  blew  his 
curls  about  annoyingly,  and  looking  back 
he  wondered  with  his  very  first  pang  how 
far  away  his  mother  was. 

"But  I'm  five  years  old!"  he  repeated  to 
spur  his  lagging  interest;  "I  want  to  go." 
And  trudging  forward  he  determined  he 
would  accomplish. what  he  had  undertaken. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN       53 

His  shoes  grew  more  and  more  heavy, 
however,  and  made  his  feet  fairly  drag;  and 
old  Jack  Frost  seemed  now  to  be  nipping 
at  his  face  as  well  as  his  hands.  A  funny 
"stomachache-feel,"  like  that  which  came 
when  his  mother  scolded  him,  rose  up  in  his 
throat,  and  he  kept  looking  backward,  al- 
most wishing  he  had  not  come. 

"But  I'm  five  years  old!"  he  repeated  to 
himself,  "and  I  want  to  go!"  And  he 
dragged  himself  manfully  on. 

Finally,  just  ahead  of  him  at  the  curb 
of  the  sidewalk,  he  saw  a  small,  bright  red 
wagon,  piled  high  with  white  bundles,  and 
seated  on  the  seat,  his  hands  holding  the 
reins,  was  a  big-eyed  black  boy  hardly  larger 
than  himself,  and  to  this  gorgeous  well 
equipped  equipage  there  was  fastened  the 
most  beautiful  mottled  black  and  mud-col- 
ored billy-goat  he  had  ever  seen  in  his  whole 


54       MR.   DOCTOR-MAX 

long  life!  The  sight  of  it  and  its  driver 
aroused  Christopher  as  nothing  else  could 
have  done  and,  forgetting  his  fatigue,  he  ran 
forward  eagerly.  Stepping  from  the  side- 
walk just  in  front  of  where  the  goat  had 
drawn  himself  up  for  a  few  moments  of 
willful  rest,  Christopher  addressed  the  little 
darky. 

"Is  him  yours?"  he  asked,  pointing  ex- 
citedly to  the  balking  goat  with  both  his 
chubby  forefingers. 

The  driver  grinned  and  bowed  a  proud 
assent. 

Little  Christopher  stepped  closer.  He 
and  the  goat  exchanged  serious  wide-eyed 
stares,  then  turning  to  the  black  boy  again, 
he  stated  solemnly  and  with  all  due  dignity : 

"I  wants  him  .  .  .  I'll  give  you  two 
nickels,  and  three  pennies,  and  a  dime  for 
him!"  And  running  his  hand  into  the  side 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        55 

pocket  of  his  blouse  to  assure  himself  that 
his  store  of  coin  was  there  he  stood  watching 
for  the  impression  that  he  felt  certain  this 
huge  offer  would  make  upon  the  other  boy. 

But  continuing  to  grin,  the  little  darky 
emphatically  shook  his  head. 

Christopher  stuck  one  puzzled  finger  in 
his  mouth  at  the  unexpected  refusal  and  re- 
garded the  goat  with  renewed  awe  and  ad- 
miration, while  the  latter  continued  to  return 
the  compliment  unblinkingly.  The  sum  he 
had  so  recklessly  offered  constituted  his  en- 
tire worldly  goods,  and  he  had  certainly 
thought  it  more  than  generous ;  but  the  other 
boy,  shrewd  for  one  of  his  years  and  by  in- 
heritance a  gilt-edged  mule  trader,  was  quick 
to  realize  that  he  could  take  advantage  of 
him. 

"He's  wo'th  a-million-dollars  mo'  dan 
dat,"  he  stated,  and  sloughing  from  the 


56       MR.   DOCTOR-MAN 

wagon  he  went  around  to  his  steed's  head  to 
show  off  his  paces,  as  it  were. 

"See  dat  off  eye?"  he  said  proudly.  "It's 
blind.  A  fire  cracker  'sploded  in  it!" 

Little  Christopher  stuck  his  face  very 
close  into  that  of  the  goat's  and  gazed  at 
the  injured  orb  admiringly. 

"And  look  here  at  dat  sink  in  his  lef '  side," 
his  owner  continued.  "A  awmobile  runned 
over  him  dar  and  smasheded  three  ribs  and 
a  half!" 

Christopher  was  duly  impressed,  but  the 
black  boy  not  yet  content  continued: 

"And  see  dat  southeast  hind  leg?  It's 
broke  right  in  two.  Dat's  why  he  walks  so 
pretty,"  pointing  to  a  leg  still  useful,  but 
warped  and  rather  the  worse  for  wear.  "Ma 
kicked  him  dar  de  last  time  she  wuz  drunk!" 
he  stated  proudly.  "An'  you  see  he  ain't 
got  no  tail  atall,  not  even  a  stump!  A  tin 


MR.   DOCTOR-MAN       57 

can  he  didn't  eat  done  dat!  An'  sometimes 
—like  now — he's  so  mulish  and  goat-haided 
he  won't  even  go — 

But  there  was  no  use  to  tabulate  Wil- 
liam's cultivated  attractions  further,  for  the 
other  child,  eager  for  the  possession  of  the 
prize  at  the  very  first  glance,  was,  now  that 
these  added  charms  had  been  pointed  out 
to  him,  coveteous  almost  beyond  the  bear- 
ing. 

"Well,  then  I  dess  I'll  dess  give  you  all 
that  money  dess  to  drive  'hind  him  out  to 
there,"  he  said,  pointing  to  the  smoke  of  the 
furnaces  he  could  again  see  and  suddenly 
remembering  the  real  reason  for  his  being 
so  far  away  from  home.  "I  can  drive  'hind 
him  right-now-this-very-second  out  to  there 
— tan't  I?"  he  asked  in  a  wistful,  almost 
pleading,  tone. 

The  black  boy  stood  in  a  brown  study  for 


58       MR.    DOCTOR-MAX 

a  moment,  seeming  to  weigh  the  mighty 
question,  then  holding  his  outstretched  pale 
palm  towards  the  other,  said  slowly:  "Let's 
see  the  chink  fust!" 

Christopher's  dimpled  fingers  scrambled 
deep  in  his  pocket  for  a  moment  and,  his 
face  beaming,  produced  the  coins,  eagerly 
pouring  them  into  the  other's  hand. 

The  older  boy  looked  them  over  carefully, 
spat  twice  upon  them,  then  rubbed  them  in 
the  dirt  at  his  feet. 

"Is  you  sure  dey  ain't  hoo-dooed?"  he 
asked  anxiously,  in  spite  of  the  precaution 
he  had  just  taken.  '  'Cause  we  doan  want 
no  hoodoo  money  in  our  fambly!" 

Christopher  looked  puzzled  a  moment,  for 
in  his  northern  training  he  had  never  come  in 
contact  with  the  dreadful  element  of  hoodoo- 
ism.  Then  he  said  with  the  dignity  any  gen- 
tleman would  have  used  if  his  check  was 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN       59 

being  questioned:  "No,  of  course  they 
isn't!  They's  dess  real  moneys  my  Gladys- 
Mamma  gave  me." 

This  seemed  to  satisfy  the  darky,  and 
putting  the  coins  in  his  cheek,  an  ever-ready 
and  safe  pocketbook,  he  motioned  the  other 
to  climb  up  on  the  wagon  seat. 

Down,  down  the  steep  streets  the  goat 
shamblingly  ambled,  then  coming  to  the 
more  level  streets  of  the  valley  they  skirted 
the  crowded  business  portion  of  Hamburg 
and  Christopher  found  himself  driving,  at 
the  pickaninny's  direction,  far  out  along  a 
black  dirt  road  on  either  side  of  which  were 
clustering  shanties,  and  beyond  them  the  fur- 
naces glowing,  sending  out  their  huge  "runs" 
of  molten  metal. 

The  sight  seemed  wonderful  and  beauti- 
ful indeed  to  the  eyes  of  the  imaginative 
New  York  child  who  had  led  such  a  well 


60       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

guarded,  uneventful  life,  and  forgetting  the 
goat  in  his  interest  at  this  realization  of  his 
journey's  end  he  stood  up  on  the  seat,  his 
big  blue  eyes  wide  with  wonder. 

The  little  negro  watched  him.  The  sum 
of  money  he  had  collected  seemed  a  large 
one,  even  to  his  avaricious  dark  soul,  but  the 
actual  words  of  the  bargain  returned  to  him 
now,  and  with  the  cunning  of  a  long  line  of 
male  ancestors  who  had  sometimes  found  it 
rather  difficult  to  get  along  without  working, 
he  realized  that  he  could  doubtless  extort 
more. 

"Who-a-,"  he  said  to  the  goat,  grabbing 
the  reins  away  from  the  driver  and  sawing 
them  vigorously  back  and  forth  through  the 
seemingly  iron-lined  jaws.  Then  turning 
to  Christopher  he  commanded : 

"Git  out.    De  ride's  over." 

Still  gazing  spellbound  at  the  fiery  mass 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN       61 

of  pouring  metal,  licking  flames,  and  curling 
smoke  that  were  belching  from  the  fur- 
naces, the  little  fellow  obeyed  silently  with- 
out a  suspicion  of  the  other's  guile;  and 
whipping  up  his  steed  the  embryo  hold-up 
man  drove  off  with  a  sudden  spurt. 

For  a  moment  little  Christopher  was 
unable  to  take  in  the  situation;  then,  an  in- 
tuitive wave  of  self-preservation  possessing 
him,  he  ran  after  the  other,  calling  wildly  for 
him  to  stop. 

For  several  moments  the  pickaninny  was 
apparently  deaf,  thoroughly  enjoying  the 
tortured  alarm  that  could  be  so  plainly  de- 
tected in  the  calling  voice. 

Then  he  slowed  down  and  looked  back. 

"Well,"  he  said,  with  impudent  assur- 
ance, "what  you  want?" 

The  other  ran  on  towards  him,  panting; 
but  as  he  neared  the  wagon  its  owner 


62       MR.   DOCTOR-MAN 

whipped  up  the  goat  again  and  left  him 
far  behind. 

He  stopped,  puzzled,  and  decidedly 
alarmed.  "I  wants  to  go  back  to  Uncle's," 
he  called  after  him. 

This  was  exactly  what  the  negro  wanted 
him  to  want,  so  stopping  a  safe  distance 
away  he  hollered :  "Den  cough  up  three  mo' 
pennies  and  a  dime  and  a  nickel!" 

The  other  heard  him  with  astonishment. 
"But  I  tan't,"  he  stated.  "You've  got  my 
moneys." 

"Aw,  that  wuz  jes  fer  bringin  you  here," 
he  answered.  "You'se  got  to  pay  me  dat 
much  agin  to  take  yer  back!" 

Surely  this  was  undue  extortion,  and  the 
keen  Yankee  mind  behind  those  guileless 
baby-blue  eyes  took  in  the  situation  at  once, 
and  righteous  anger  welled  up  in  Christo- 
pher's soul. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        63 

"I  won't  pay  you  nothin'  for  taking  me 
back!"  he  announced  with  hauteur.  "I'll 
dess  walk!"  and  whirling  on  his  heel  he 
marched  off,  his  proud  little  head  held  high. 

The  big-eyed  black  boy  looked  astonished 
for  a  moment,  then  recognizing  the  white 
boy's  master-mind,  said  persuasively: 

"Aw,  I  wuz  jes  foolin' !  Git  in,  little  Boss. 
I'll  take  you  home."  But  his  shrewdness 
again  coming  uppermost  and  getting  the 
better  of  his  racial  humbleness  he  remarked 
further:  "You  can  pay  me  when  you  git's 
dar!" 

Christopher  hesitated  just  a  moment, 
glancing  towards  the  Highlands,  blue  and 
hazy  in  the  distance,  then,  looking  at  his  com- 
panion, shook  his  head. 

His  pride  had  been  touched,  for  he  felt 
the  other  boy  had  unduly  insulted  his  dig- 
nity ;  and  for  the  first  time  realizing  the  gulf 


64       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

that  lay  between  them  he  decided  to  assert 
that  dignity  and  stand  upon  his  own  feet, 
so  to  speak.  He  did  not  in  the  least  under- 
stand or  appreciate  this  feeling.  Neither 
did  he  know  that  it  was  the  pride  inherited 
from  his  mother;  but  turning  away  he  said 
with  high-bred  courteous  firmness: 

"No,  I  dess  dess  I'll  walk,  thank  you — 
that  is,  when  I  gets  fru  looking!  I  likes 
looking  right  now!" 

The  little  darky  hung  around  hopefully 
for  quite  awhile  longer,  but  simply  did  not 
exist  for  the  new-found  and  confident  ego 
of  Christopher  Clark!  That  young  gentle- 
man was  slowly  walking  farther  and  farther 
away,  around  curves  and  angles  in  the  road, 
oftentimes  doubling  on  his  tracks  and  thus 
unconsciously  going  over  the  same  ground 
he  had  already  traversed  in  the  maze  of  this 
foundry  settlement.  But  all  the  time  he 


MR.    DOCTOR- MAN        65 

was  glorying  in  his  independence  and  in 
the  sensation  that  the  strange  scenes  about 
him  evoked. 

Finally,  after  many  dark,  half  muttered 
threats  about  "little  boys  gittin'  lost  and  the 
goblins  gittin'  'em,"  the  puzzled  pickaninny 
and  his  indifferent  goat  had  stopped  follow- 
ing the  little  explorer  and  shambled  off  in 
another  direction,  leaving  him  to  take  care 
of  himself. 

TH£  winter  wind  was  cold  and  raw  in 
spite  of  the  sunshine. 

The  black  road,  with  its  tributaries,  and 
outlets,  and  curves,  shanty-lined  everywhere, 
looked  deserted  and  forlorn;  and  as  the  day 
lengthened  and  no  food  passed  his  now 
quivering  and  feverish  little  lips,  Christo- 
pher's adventures  began  to  grow  less  inter- 
testing,  and  his  head  drooped  in  spite  of  his 
pride  and  independence. 


66        MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

"I  dess  dess  I  needs  my  nap,"  he  said 
wearily  to  himself.  "After  that  I'll  go  home 
and  tell  Gladys-Mamma  all  'bout  it."  So 
wandering  on  he  looked  hopefully  for  a  com- 
fortable place  in  which  to  .take  that  gen- 
erally despised  rest. 

It  seemed  endless  hours  that  he  had  been 
walking  about  the  settlement,  in  which  time 
the  falling  soot  with  the  aid  of  his  own  in- 
quisitive fingers  had  transformed  him  from 
an  immaculate  child  of  luxury  into  a  gamin 
of  the  streets,  and  now,  heavy  eyed  and 
smutty,  and  having  come  to  a  shack  the  door 
of  which  stood  invitingly  open,  he  decided  to 
go  in. 

Slowly  dragging  one  little  foot  after  the 
other  he  climbed  up  the  low,  ramshackly 
steps,  and  entering,  gazed  about  him  for  a 
moment.  Then  he  sighed  with  relief,  for  in 
the  far  corner  of  its  one  room  he  discovered 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        67 

a  bundle  of  rags  and  straw  that  had  doubt- 
less passed  at  one  time  for  a  bed.  The  sight 
of  this  gladdened  his  heart,  and  down  upon 
it  he  cast  his  weary  body  without  so  much 
as  a  second  thought,  while  two  big  tears  he 
had  been  trying  so  hard  to  keep  back  escaped 
and  washed  their  streaky  little  white  way 
down  his  blackened  cheeks.  The  discomfort 
he  had  felt  in  his  throat  that  morning  had 
become  far  worse  than  a  "stomachache-feel" 
now,  and  he  wished  desperately  that  he  had 
not  come. 

But  true  to  his  world-old  habit  the  Sand- 
man, a  faithful  friend  to  all  little  children 
everywhere,  did  not  wait  for  the  summons 
of  Night,  but  seeing  the  poor  little  fellow's 
distress,  quickly  touched  his  eyelids,  and  he 
slept,  snuggling  further  and  further  down 
in  the  filthy,  infected  rags  about  him,  only 
half  conscious  of  the  growing  chokey  pain. 


68       MR.   DOCTOR-MAN 

Thus  it  was  that  after  hours  of  feverish 
sleep,  hours  in  which  the  diphtheria  germs 
got  in  their  deadly  work,  Miss  Comfort 
found  him  and  sent  in  her  S.  O.  S.  call  to 
her  kindly  doctor  sitting  at  his  desk  in  his 
room  on  the  Highlands. 


CHAPTER    III 


R.  DEAN'S  motor  rapidly  threaded 
its  way  out  from  the  foundry  settle- 
ment, paused  at  the  first  drug  store  he  came 
to  only  long  enough  for  him  to  get  his  usual 
"scrub  up"  after  his  visit  to  the  infected 
district,  and  then  went  speeding  on  towards 
Hamburg's  Police  Headquarters,  located 
in  the  heart  of  the  busy  city. 

He  sat  very  silent  and  still,  his  finely 
shaped  head  bowed  upon  his  breast  think- 
ing of  the  poor  little  sufferer  he  had  just 
left.  Who  could  he  be?  he  wondered.  He 
felt  certain  he  belonged  elsewhere  than  the 
place  in  which  Miss  Comfort  had  found  him. 
And,  too,  there  was  something  strangely, 
hauntingly  familiar  about  him!  Yet  try  as 

71 


72        MR.    DOCTOR-MAX 

he  would  the  doctor  could  not  for  the  life 
of  him  think  where,  or  when,  he  had  ever 
seen  the  exquisite  baby  face  before. 

Was  it  the  clinging  sun-kissed  curls  that 
reminded  him  of  that  other  golden  head,  he 
wondered?  Was  it  the  child's  big  blue  eyes 
that  brought  back  memories  of— 

Pshaw!  what  a  fool,  what  an  awful  fool 
he  was !  How  silly  of  him  to  even  recall  all 
that  again.  It  was  out  of  his  life  now- 
done  with  forever!  And  with  his  usual  im- 
patience at  any  sentimentality  on  his  part 
he  scowled  and  tried  to  banish  all  thought 
of  the  child  from  his  mind.  Yet  he  must 
find  its  parents,  he  remembered,  sympathy 
for  them  rising  in  his  heart.  How  worried 
they  must  be.  And  once  more  the  little  white 
face  with  its  pathetic  appeal  of  suffering 
seemed  to  come  before  him,  spurring  him  on. 

"Hurry  up,  Bud,"  he  said  to  the  chauffeur. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        73 

"This  isn't  a  nigger  funeral.  Git!  I'm  in  a 
hurry.  What's  the  matter  anyhow?"  as  the 
car  suddenly  shook  itself,  choked,  spat,  then 
slowed  down  and  began  a  sidelong,  balking, 
sort  of  hesitation  waltz  backwards  down  the 
hill. 

The  chauffeur's  dark  face  clouded  with 
quick  impatience  for  a  moment  at  this  per- 
formance, and  then  cleared,  leaving  his  good- 
natured  grin  wider  than  ever  as  he  threw 
on  the  brakes  and  stopped  the  car. 

"Law,  Boss,  dar  ain't  nothin'  de  matter 
wid  dis  Ford  'ceptin'  contrariness.  All  cars 
is  automobillygoats  in  dat  respect,"  and  he 
cluckled.  "Dat's  howcome  I  named  dis  here 
one  'Perhaps.'  Dey  all  oughter  be  named 
dat,  kaze  perhaps  dey  will  and  perhaps  dey 
won't — jes'  accordin'  to  how  dey  feels!"  and 
continuing  to  chuckle  he  climbed  out  and 
went  around  in  front  of  the  car. 


74       MR.    DOCTOR-MAX 

"Whoa-a-  dar,  ole  gal,"  he  said,  taking 
hold  of  the  crank  with  both  hands  as  the 
car  showed  signs  of  renewed  balking. 
"Whoa-a-a!  no  more  skid-scamperin'  fer 
you!  When  I  git  yer  coffee-grinder  ground 
up  youse  got  to  go! — go  like  a  sinner  when 
the  Debil  is  runnin'  him!  Yer  hear?  Boss 
is  in  a  hurry,"  continuing  to  talk  to  it  as 
though  it  were  alive.  .  .  .  "But  dar!  Here 
— we — goes!!"  And  having  succeeded  in 
getting  up  power  again,  he  clambered  back 
into  the  car,  grasped  the  steering-wheel 
firmly  and  shot  up  the  long  black  hill  like  a 
streak ! 

Up  one  hill  and  down  another,  around  the 
corners  whizzing  and  rattling  and  bumping, 
they  sped,  the  negro  now  ziz-zagging  skil- 
fully in  and  out  along  the  streets  still 
crowded  with  Christmas  shoppers,  keeping 
up  a  running  fire  of  remarks  to  the  car  the 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        75 

while,  until  finally  he  pulled  up  with  an  ex- 
hilarating jerk  in  front  of  the  city's  home  for 
Blue-Coats,  and  announced  nonchalantly : 

"Right  here,  Boss!  Dar  ain't  nothin'  de 
matter  wid  dis  car!  No  sar!  Nor  nothin' 
slow  about  me  neither !  If  you  pay  de  fines 
I'll  enjoy  myself  ev'y  time,  I  will!  Yes, 
soli!"  and  jumping  out  he  opened  the  door 
with  a  flourish,  looking  about  with  self- 
satisfied  pride  in  hopes  there  were  other 
negroes  watching  who  would  be  duly  im- 
pressed by  his  skill  and  speedy  driving. 

Half-smiling,  but  without  answering  the 
darky,  Dr.  Dean  got  out  and  hurried  up 
the  steps  of  the  brightly  lighted  police  build- 
ing. Surely  here  he  would  find  some  trace 
of  the  child's  identity,  for  his  loss  must  cer- 
tainly have  been  reported  by  now. 

Suddenly  he  felt  a  jerk  at  his  sleeve,  and 
wheeling  around  saw  his  comical  chauffeur 


76       MR.    DOCTOR-MAX 

grinning  apologetically  and  holding  a  letter 
towards  him. 

"Boss,"  he  said,  "I  clean  forgot  dis.  De 
postman  give  it  to  me  dis  mornin'." 

The  doctor  paused  only  long  enough  to 
take  the  proffered  envelope,  glance  at  it, 
then  thrust  it  into  his  pocket  unopened. 

"That's  all  right,  Bud,"  he  said,  and  strode 
on. 

The  letter  bore  the  printed  name  of  the 
Home  where  his  little  wife-patient  was.  It 
was  a  bill,  no  doubt.  That  was  all  there 
ever  was;  for  she,  of  course,  was  incapable 
of  writing.  So  dismissing  the  whole  incident 
he  passed  on  through  the  door  of  the  building 
and  was  about  to  enter  the  main  room  when 
a  man  and  woman  passed  him.  Something 
in  her  frightened,  pathetic  clinging  to  the 
man's  arm  suddenly  attracted  his  attention, 
and  getting  a  view  of  her  small  delicate  pro- 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        77 

file  through  her  heavy  veil,  sharply  defined 
against  the  dark  of  the  hall's  door-way,  he 
started  violently,  then  frowned.  What  was 
the  matter  with  him  to-day,  anyway?  he 
asked  himself  impatiently.  He  was  certain- 
ly getting  morbidly  sentimental!  And 
striding  on  into  the  main  room  of  the  build- 
ing he  addressed  a  uniformed  Sergeant-in- 
Charge  who  sat  writing  at  his  tall  desk. 
Greeting  him  with  a  friendly  nod,  the 
Sergeant  listened  sympathetically  while  he 
explained  his  errand,  reporting  the  finding 
of  an  evidently  lost  child  and  its  present  ill 
condition. 

Then  the  Sergeant  smiled  encouragingly. 
"There  was  a  lady  and  gent  in  here  just  now 
for  the  twentieth  time  looking  for  that  very 
kid,.  I  reckon,  Doctor,"  he  said.  "Let's  see, 
the  name  was — was—  "  and  he  turned  to 
his  pad  as  a  reminder. 


78       MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

The  doctor  waited  almost  breathlessly. 
Somehow  this  little  fellow  had  taken  a  great 
hold  on  his  heart  strings.  He  could  even 
now  see  his  big  pleading  eyes  full  of  patient 
suffering— 

"The  name  was — Woods,"  the  Sergeant 
said,  finding  the  memorandum  on  his  pad. 
"Mr.  Woods,  you  know,  of  the  firm  of 
'Woods  &  Woods.'  Has  just  built  one  of 
the  swellest  houses  on  Gray  Mountain. 
Brought  his  money  down  to  these  parts  from 
old  New  York  a  few  years  ago  just  to  help 
'boom  the  poor  South,'  "  and  he  laughed. 
"But  I  reckon  the  'poor  South'  has  put  a 
good  many  perfectly  good  eagles  in  his 
Yankee  pocket,  all  right,  all  right !" 

"But  the  boy,"  the  doctor  broke  in  im- 
patiently. "What  did  he  say  about  him? 
How  did  he  get  lost?  Wasn't  he  terribly 
worried?" 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        79 

"Oh,  yes,  he  was  worried  all  right,"  the 
Sergeant  replied.  "But  the  kid's  mother! 
L&wdee!  I  thought  she'd  have  a  tantrum 
right  here,  she  was  that  excited!  And  if 
there's  anything  I  do  hate,  Doctor,  it's  to  see 
a  pretty  blue-eyed  young  critter  like  her 
&  cry  ing.  Why,  the  very  way  she  looked  at 
me — pleading  like  her  heart  was  broke — for 
me  to  find  her  'little  Christopher'  got  me 
through  and  through!  I  just  naturally 
promised  her  to  find  the  kid  in  about  five 
minutes'  time!"  and  the  big,  kind-hearted, 
rough  fellow  grinned  sheepishly  at  the  re- 
membrance of  the  way  he  had  soothingly  re- 
assured little  Mrs.  Clark. 

"Well,  give  me  Mr.  Woods's  telephone 
number,"  the  doctor  demanded,  picking  up 
the  instrument  from  the  Sergeant's  desk. 
"I'll  notify  them  of  the  little  boy's  where- 
abouts and  condition  at  once." 


80        MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

So  calling  the  house  that  fright  and  anx- 
iety was  overshadowing,  the  doctor  told  Mr. 
Woods  the  story  of  his  discovery  of  Chris- 
topher and  of  his  present  critical  illness. 
Arrangements  were  quickly  made  for  Mr. 
Woods  and  his  limousine  to  go  to  the  shanty 
where  the  boy  was,  and  accompanied  by  the 
doctor  and  his  district  nurse  the  little  boy 
was  soon  speeding  towards  his  uncle's  house 
where  an  immaculate  and  sun-flooded  "con- 
tagious ward"  had  been  improvised  from  his 
and  his  mother's  rooms;  and  where  she 
awaited  him  with  tearful  eyes  but  a  heart  full 
of  thankfulness  that  he  had  thus  been  safely 
returned  to  her. 

Pure  and  bright  and  crystal  clear  the 
Christ  Child's  birthday  dawned  above  the 
brooding  mountains  of  the  Magic  City,  and 
her  wreathing  smoke  from  tall  industrial 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        81 

chimneys  was  wafted  upward  into  the  rosi- 
ness  of  the  winter  morning.  Soon  becoming 
a  misty,  floating  veil  in  the  clear  air,  it  was 
illumined  by  the  sun  smiling  through  it  and 
hung,  a  Christmas  halo,  seeming  to  promise 
"Peace  on  Earth,  Good  Will  towards  Men." 
Far  away  a  set  of  silvery  Christmas  chimes 
sang  softly  of  the  Saviour's  birth;  and  over 
all  her  hills  and  valleys  there  seemed  also  to 
descend  a  soothing  prophecy  of  happiness- 
to-come,  as  one  lone  star  still  shone  faintly 
above  the  rising  sun  in  the  East. 

Opening  his  eyes  at  the  sound  of  the  chim- 
ing bells  Dr.  Dean  lay  motionless  for  a  mo- 
ment looking  out  upon  this  picture ;  and  then 
almost  unconsciously  feeling  the  Spirit  of 
Eternal  Love  that  pervaded  the  Yuletide 
world,  a  wan  smile  of  hope  suddenly  kindled 
in  his  tired  eyes. 

"Surely  this  is  the  end  of  it,"  he  mur- 


82       MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

mured.  "The  end  of  needless  suffering  for 
Hamburg,"  and  going  over  the  crowded 
events  and  tragedies  that  had  followed  his 
discovery  of  little  Christopher  he  marveled 
in  the  light  of  his  present  mood  that  they 
ever  could  have  been.  And  his  own  words 
returning  to  him  he  said  them  aloud  in  ex- 
planation. 

"Safety  and  selfishness  do  not  make  good 
bedfellows.  To  safeguard  one's  own  one 
must  safeguard  all  others.  Diphtheria 
eliminates  distance — as  do  all  contagious  dis- 
eases, for  every  sick  child  is  every  well 
child's  neighbor 

How  true,  how  terribly  true  these  words 
had  been  proven,  and  lying  thus  he  again 
went  over  every  detail  of  the  past  dreadful 
weeks — weeks  of  nights  turned  into  days, 
and  days  seemingly  into  years  for  him  as  he 
had  worked  frantically  to  stem  the  epidemic 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        83 

that  with  Christopher's  illness  and  sojourn 
in  the  kindly  negro's  cabin  had  begun  to 
sweep  over  the  great  city  like  a  tidal  wave, 
making  the  mothers  of  the  Highlands  and 
the  mothers  of  the  Foundries  one  in  suffer- 
ing; until  finally  reaching  its  highwater 
mark  it  had  receded,  leaving  only  himself, 
now  free  of  germs  but  temporarily  made  "a 
useless  heap"  from  a  heart  complication, 
slowly  convalescing  in  his  own  bright  room. 

"Good  morning,  Doctor,"  a  pleasant  voice 
broke  in  upon  his  thoughts,  "a  happy  Christ- 
mas to  you !"  and  Miss  Comfort,  the  bright- 
faced  nurse,  came  in  at  his  bedroom  door  and 
starchily  rustled  up  to  his  bedside.  "All 
comfy?  How's  the  pulse  this  morning?" 
and  putting  her  long  cool  fingers  on  his 
wrist  she  smiled  at  him  cheerily. 

He  returned  the  smile  and  pointed  out  of 
the  window. 


84       MR.   DOCTOR- MAN 

"Hopeful,"  he  said,  "like  that  view.  The 
people  surely  will  give  the  children  a  chance 
now — since  this — don't  you  think  so,  Miss 
Comfort?"  and  he  looked  at  her  earnestly, 
for  always,  all  through  the  trying  weeks  of 
self-sacrificing  work,  and  those  of  his  own 
resulting  suffering,  his  dream,  the  ideal 
towards  which  he  had  been  working  for  five 
years,  had  never  for  one  moment  left  his 
mind. 

Hamburg  must  have  a  Children's  Hos- 
pital ! 

The  nurse's  face  beamed,  and  leaning  for- 
ward as  eagerly  as  a  child  she  slipped  a  big 
bright  red  envelope,  tied  with  holly  ribbon, 
into  his  hand,  then  stepped  back  and  watched 
his  face  closely. 

"A  'Santy  Claus'  for  me,  eh?"  he  said 
whimsically;  and  smiled  at  her  eager  man- 
ner. "Thank  you,  Miss  Comfort.  You're 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        85 

the  most  unfailingly  thoughtful  person  I 
ever  knew!"  and  he  began  to  untie  the  rib- 
bon, thinking  to  find  some  gift  from  her 
who  had  helped  him  so  constantly  all  through 
the  years  of  his  charity  practice. 

"Oh,  don't  thank  me"  she  said,  coloring 
at  his  praise.  "That's  from— 

But  as  she  spoke  the  doctor  unfolded  a 
long  sheet  of  paper,  upon  which  were  writ- 
ten only  a  very  few  lines. 

For  a  moment  he  seemed  unable  to  read 
it  in  his  surprise,  and  sat  looking  at  the  paper 
stupidly.  Then  suddenly  taking  in  its  im- 
port the  tears  sprang  to  his  eyes,  and  reach- 
ing out  he  grasped  the  nurse's  sympathetic 
hand. 

"Miss  Comfort!"  he  exclaimed  excitedly, 
"Miss  Comfort!" 

"Yes,  I  know,"  she  said,  tears  springing  to 
her  eyes,  too. 


86       MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

"Thank  God !"  he  breathed  fervently,  and 
turning  the  paper  so  that  the  light  would 
fall  full  upon  it  he  read  its  contents  aloud  in 
a  voice  shaking  with  emotion. 

"TO 

DAVID  DEAN,  M.D. 

CHRISTMAS  GREETINGS 

December  24th,  1915. 

"We,  the  undersigned,  this  day  have  de- 
posited in  the  Hamburg  National  Bank  One 
Hundred  Thousand  Dollars,  which  amount 
shall  be  used  to  build,  equip,  and  run  a 

CHILDREN'S  HOSPITAL 

the    site,    architecture,    and    equipment    of 
which  shall  be  entirely  in  the  hands  of 

DR.  DAVID   DEAN 

and  those  whom  he  may  personally  choose 
as  a  Committee,  or  Committees,  to  help  him. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAX        87 

When  completed  this  building,  or  buildings, 
shall  bear  his  name  in  recognition  of  his 
self-sacrificing  work  among  our  children. 

GRATEFUL  MOTHERS  or  HAMBURG. 
Signed " 

And  then  there  followed  a  long  list  of  writ- 
ten names,  at  the  top  of  which  stood  out  in 
its  dainty  boldness  the  signature  of  Gladys 
Clark. 

The  nurse  tiptoed  away  and  stood  gaz- 
ing down,  dim-eyed,  at  the  awakening  city, 
while  the  rejoicing  doctor,  the  precious  docu- 
ment clasped  tightly  in  his  hand,  lay  and 
gazed  out  from  his  window  too,  seeming  to 
see  his  hospital  already  built — and  dream- 
ing forbidden  day-dreams. 

Impatiently  he  put  those  from  him.  That 
was  all  over  and  done  with  forever! 

And  then  for  the  first  time  since  the  night 


88        MR.    DOCTOR- MAN 

he  had  discovered  little  Christopher  the  re- 
membrance of  a  scene  in  which  his  black 
chauffeur  was  handing  him  a  letter  with  the 
"Home"  name  printed  on  its  corner  flashed 
before  his  mind's  eye. 

It  was  Christmas — the  poor  little  dark- 
haired  thing  bearing  his  name  didn't  know 
it,  of  course ;  but  well, — he  guessed  he  would 
not  shun  the  thought  of  her  on  such  a  happy 
day  for  him!  Poor  child,  none  of  it  had 
been  her  fault — he'd  send  the  check  at  once 
— and  an  extra  one  for  some  small  luxury, 
even  though  she  could  not  appreciate  such 
a  thing. 

"Miss  Comfort,"  he  said,  "please  look  in 
the  left-hand  pocket  of  my  grey  coat  and 
get  a  letter — an  unopened  one,"  and  he 
watched  her  as  she  obeyed. 

"Open  it,  please,"  he  requested. — "Is  it 
a  bill?" 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        89 

"No,  doctor,"  she  said,  "a  letter  signed— 
and  looking  to  the  next  page  for  the  signa- 
ture she  saw  a  word  that  startled  her. 

"It's  signed  'William  Brown,  Physician 
in  Charge,'  Dr.  Dean,"  she  said,  "but — but 
I  think — I  think  youd  better  not  see  this  let- 
ter  " 

"Give  it  to  me!"  Dr.  Dean  demanded  with 
a  sudden  feeling  of  alarm. 

The  nurse  hesitated  a  moment,  instinc- 
tively started  to  obey,  then  attempted  to 
draw  the  letter  back. 

But  he  was  too  quick  for  her,  and  reach- 
ing out  took  it  from  her  almost  roughly. 
His  eyes  hurried  over  its  contents,  and  she 
was  alarmed  at  his  sudden  pallor. 

"Are  you  all  right,  Doctor?"  she  asked, 
quickly  placing  her  fingers  on  his  pulse. 

He  turned  his  head  away  and  lay  very  still 
without  answering. 


90       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

"Please  speak,"  she  said.  "Doctor! — Dr. 
Dean!" 

Slowly  his  head  turned  back  and  his  hol- 
low dark  eyes  looked  into  hers.  She  was  still 
more  startled  by  their  expression. 

"Are  you  all  right?"  she  asked  again. 

The  doctor  moved  slightly,  then  for  the 
first  time  noticing  her  look  of  alarm  he 
hastened  to  reassure  her.  "Yes,  oh  yes, 
I'm — all  right.  Don't  worry — Miss  Com- 
fort. Just — just— 

And  then  his  voice  gaining  in  volume  un- 
til she  was  even  more  startled  than  before 
by  his  evident  excitement,  he  said: 

"Get  my  clothes!  Quick!  Quick,  Miss 
Comfort!  I'm  going  to  sit  up — I'm  going 

"But,  Doctor,"  she  remonstrated,  laying 
her  hand  soothingly  on  his  and  trying  to 
think  how  best  to  calm  and  dissuade  him. 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        91 

"Get  my  clothes,  I  say!"  he  thundered  in 
a  way  she  had  never  heard  him  speak  before. 
"I'm  going  to  sit  up,  I  tell  you,  now — now!! 
And,  Miss  Comfort,"  as  she  meekly  brought 
his  clothes  to  the  bedside,  "call  up  Mrs. 
Clark!  I'm  well,  I  tell  you!  Call  up  Mrs. 
Clark!  I  must  see  her  at  once!!"  and  wav- 
ing the  nurse  away  he  sat  up  and  began  hur- 
riedly dressing. 

"Drat  it!"  he  suddenly  said,  stopping  in 
dizzy  annoyance  at  his  weakness,  "drat  it! 
I— I- 

"Here  you,  Miss  Comfort,"  he  called 
sharply. — "Strychnine.— Hypo!"  and  he 
collapsed  back  upon  his  pillow. 

A  few  hours  later  Miss  Comfort,  accom- 
panied by  a  Christmas  visitor,  tapped  gently 
at  the  determined  doctor's  room  where  he 
was  sitting  bolstered  up  in  a  big  Morris- 


92       MR.   DOCTOR-MAX 

chair  near  the  window,  his  back  turned  in- 
hospitably towards  the  door. 

"Come  in,"  a  sweet  feminine  voice  an- 
swered in  chorus  with  his, — and  little  Mrs. 
Clark  moved  away,  crossing  over  to  the  op- 
posite side  of  the  window  and  standing  there 
demurely,  her  cheeks  glowing,  her  loosened 
curls  caressing  her  small,  piquant  face. 

Dr.  Dean  sat  very  erect  and  strong  in  his 
chair.  His  big  dark  eyes  were  illumined, 
but  being  otherwise  engaged  did  not  turn 
towards  the  door  as  it  opened;  and  so  when 
two  small  hands  were  suddenly  clapped  over 
them  he  started  with  surprise. 

"Dess  dess  who  this  is,  Mr.  Doctor-Man," 
a  happy  childish  voice  rippled.  Then  unable 
to  keep  the  secret  longer,  little  Christopher 
jumped  around  in  front  of  the  doctor's  chair 
and  threw  his  arms  about  his  neck. 

"Did  you  think  it  was  Santy  Claus?"  he 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        03 

asked,  drawing  away  and  regarding  the  man 
seriously. 

Dr.  Dean  did  not  answer,  but  looked  in- 
stead towards  the  boy's  mother,  who  stepped 
forward  smiling  and  put  her  hand  on  his 
little  curly  head. 

"Bad  boy!"  she  said.  "You  ought  not 
to  have  jumped  at  the  'Doctor-Man'  like 
that.  You  might  have  hurt  him.  He  has 
been  very  sick,  you  know— 

"Yes,  I  knows,"  her  son  said  gravely,  re- 
garding Dr.  Dean  with  sympathetic  eyes. 
"That's  why  I  love  him  so.  I'se  feeled  a 
stomachache-feel  of  sorry  for  him  right  in- 
side of  me  here,"  he  said,  putting  his  hand 
on  his  chest,  "and  I  loves  him  since  he  got  me 
well — don't  you,  Gladys-Mamma?  You 
said  you  did!" 

"Yes,  I  love  him,  dear,"  Mrs.  Clark  an- 
swered bravely.  "But  run  along  now  and 


94       MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

play.  You  promised  if  I  let  you  come  you 
would  stay  downstairs  like  a  good  boy 

Christopher's  mouth  drooped  at  the 
thought  of  returning  below.  "Yes,  yes,  I 
know  I  did,"  he  said  excitedly.  "But  now 
I  wants  to  give  Mr.  Doctor-Man  his  Christ- 
mas present!" 

"All  right,  Little  Man,"  Dr.  Dean  said, 
and  reaching  out  drew  the  little  fellow  to 
him.  "What  have  you  got  for  me?" 

The  child  hesitated  for  a  moment,  then 
snuggling  himself  in  between  the  doctor's 
knees  looked  up  into  his  eyes  and  said 
earnestly: 

"You'll  never,  never  dess,"  and  then  put- 
ting his  arm  about  the  Doctor's  neck  he  whis- 
pered audibly:  "Cause — it's  my  Mamma!" 
And  drawing  back  he  watched  to  see  the  ef- 
fect upon  the  doctor. 

Mrs.  Clark  gasped  with  surprise  at  this 


MR.    DOCTOR-MAN        95 

remarkable  statement  of  her  small  son's,  but 
Dr.  Dean  drew  him  closer,  waiting  for  an 
explanation  of  the  gift  that  he  felt  sure 
would  come. 

He  was  not  disappointed,  for  presently 
the  little  fellow  went  on: 

"You  see,  Tommy  I  plays  with  says  God 
gave  him  a  brother  for  Christmas  cause  he's 
sick  wif  a  broke  leg.  So  I  dess  dessed  I'd 
give  you  a  Mamma!" 

Tears  sprang  to  David  Dean's  eyes  at 
these  sweet  words  from  the  child's  lips ;  and 
gathering  him  up  upon  his  lap  he  held  out 
his  arms  towards  the  smiling  little  woman  by 
his  side. 

Kneeling  down,  she  came  into  them,  and 
putting  one  hand  on  her  son's  cheek  and  one 
on  the  man's,  drew  them  against  each  of  her 
own. 

"And  do  you  know  what  Gladys-Mamma 


96        MR.    DOCTOR-MAN 

is  going  to  give  little  Christopher  for  his 
Christmas  present?"  she  asked,  turning  to 
kiss  the  child. 

"No.    What?"  he  asked  eagerly. 

But  kissing  him  right  on  the  tip-end  of 
his  puggy  little  nose  his  mother  and  the 
doctor  laughed  gaily ;  and  then  looking  deep 
into  each  other's  eyes,  told  him  he  would 
simply  have  to  guess!! 


THE   END 


THE    BOOKS    OF 
HELEN    S.   WOODRUFF 


"Long  after  the  'Lady  of  the  Light- 
house' has  filled  the  coffers  of  the 
N.  Y.  Association  for  the  Blind, 
and  'Mr.  Doctor-Man'  has  built 
a  children's  hospital  for  the  poor 
of  Birmingham;  long  after  'Mis' 
Beauty'  has  shed  its  mirth  and 
sunshine  to  brighten  drab  lives, 
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loving  —  Helen  S.  Woodruff's 
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is  every  child's  birth -right!  To 
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THE  BOOKS  OF  HELEN  S.  WOODRUFF 

MR.  DOCTOR-MAN 

Christmas  a-coming;  the  air  full  of  the  scent  of 
approaching  snow.  The  doctor  man  had  fought  and 
fought  and  fought  for  a  children's  ward  for  infectious 
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how  when  Christmas  bells  filled  the  air  with  sounds 
as  delicate  and  shining  as  the  little  floating  snowflakes, 
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fied by  the  working  of  its  charm  to  the  end  of  the  re- 
stored reason  of  the  "Sorrylady,"  and  the  healing  of 
the  Colonel's  broken  heart,  the  discovery  of  unrevealed 
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THE    REALLY   TRULY    SERIES 

Decorations  and  Illustrations  by  Griselda 
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REALLY  TRULY  FAIRY  STORIES 

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REALLY  TRULY  NATURE  STORIES 

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butterfly,  the  snake  and  the  muskrat  are  some  of  the 
teachers.  The  child  reader  learns  to  know  the  animals 
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THE  BOOKS  OF  HELEN  S.  WOODRUFF 

THE  LADY  OF  THE  LIGHTHOUSE 

A  story  that  has  been  made  into  films,  and  through 
its  sales  and  influence  brought  into  the  empty  coffers 
of  the  Association  for  the  Blind  of  New  York  THREE 
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is  a  message  of  cheer  to  the  afflicted,  of  encouragement 
to  all  who  may  think  they  are  having  an  unduly  hard 
time  in  the  world.  The  'lady  of  the  lighthouse'  sees 
a  blind  boy  at  the  window  of  a  well-to-do  home.  With 
her  courage,  sanity  and  invincible  hope,  she  brings 
about  a  different  atmosphere  in  the  home,  and  the 
child  becomes  contented  and  happy.  The  lovely  Lady 
inspires  the  whole  book  with  her  courage  and  sweet- 
ness."— New  York  Times.  Net,  $0.50 

MIS'  BEAUTY.    ILLUSTRATED  IN  COLOR 

"  No  Southern  story  has  come  to  us  so  full  of  charm 
and  feeling  since  Thomas  Nelson  Page's  day.  If  he  rep- 
resents the  old  South,  Mrs.  Woodruff  represents  the  new 
South  in  the  same  genre,  and  there  is  no  reason  why 
she  should  not  give  us  the  very  finest  literature,  en- 
dowed by  her  rare  charm  and  human  feeling. " — Boston 
Transcript. 

"A  love  story  and  a  princess  all  in  one.    A  book  of 
rare  and  engaging  quality." — New  York  World. 
"All  that  could  be  desired  to  dispel  an  attack  of  ennui; 
a  fascinating  book  for  reading  aloud." — Philadelphia 
Press.    Net,  $1.00 


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